Method for the purification of hydrocarbons



UNITED STATES PATENT OFF-ICE;

JOSEPH MAURICE TRENEER, OF NEW YORK, N.'Y., AND CHARLES S. BENJAMIN, 0]EAST ORANGE, -NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS TO ANDREW J. DOREMUS, OF WEST NEWBRIGHTON, NEW YORK, AND HOWARD G. TURNER, OF PATERSON, NEW

JERSEY.

unrhon ron tr m PURIFICATION or HYDROCARBONS.

No Drawing. Application filed June 4,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JosnPH MAURICE TRENEER, a citizen of Great Britain,and CHARLES S. BENJAMIN, a citizen of the United States, residing in,respectlvely, West New Brighton, county of Richmond, city of New York,and State of New York, and East Orange, county of Essex, and State ofNew Jersey, have invented certaln new and useful Improvements in Methodsfor the Purification of Hydrocarbons, of which the following is a full,clear, and exact specification.

Our invention relates to methods for purifying hydrocarbonsand refersparticularly to methods for purifying petroleum hydrocarbons.

Crude petroleum hydrocarbons, and especially those hydrocarbons whichare solid, semi-solid or non-liquid at ordinary temperatures, containunsaturated hydrocarbons, oils, water and other Ingredients which it isnecessary to eliminate in order to obtain products which are practicallycolorless, odorless and tasteless.

This conversion of the crude product into the practically purecommercial article must be performed with considerable care in orderthat the desirable compounds may not be disintegrated, or broken down,into undesirable ones, and, for this reason, the proposed use of manychemicals and the following of many suggested processes have proven tobe practically useless.

It is essential, therefore, that an efficient process for the describedpurification must be one which will destroy, or remove, the deleterioussubstances without aflecting the properties of the desirablehydrocarbons.

The use of strong chemicals is objectionable on account of theirliability to attack the hydrocarbons and the employment of extremes oftemperatures are similarly to be avoided as many of the hydrocarbons areaffected, or changed, by abnormally high, or abnormally low, temperatureandare particularly sensitive to chemical reagents under thesecircumstances. It is therefore evident that the use of chemicals underconditions that require extreme temperatures, or pressures, are not asdesirable as a process conducted under normal conditions.

It is further to be noted that the comspeclflcatlon of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 4, 1921. 1 920. Serial No. 386,632.

monly employed practice of sweating steaming and filter pressing iscumbersome, requires the. use of expensive machinery, necessltates theemployment of a very considerable amount of labor and requires a greatamount of time for the following out of the operations.

The element of cost is also an essential consideration, and hence, theuse of volatile solvents,,0 r of volatile. active reagents, must beaccompanied by conditions that will not allow of excessive loss.

The process of our invention overcomes all of the above suggesteddifiiculties and presents a method whereby crude hydrocarbons may bepurified at a minimum of cost and without the danger incident to theemployment of strong'acids, or extremes of tern eratures.

e have discovered that crude hydrocarbons, and especially thosewhich aresolid, or semi-solid, at ordinary temperatures, may be efiiciently andeconomically purified by treating them with a solution of sulfur-dioxidin certain solvents. We have further found that such treatment does notrequire the employment of extreme temperatures or the use of pressure.

As a solvent means, we refer those chemicals which will dissolve theobjectionable compounds incorporated in the hydrocarbons as well as theobjectionable ones which are formed by the action of the sulfur-dioxid,thus allowin of the ready separation of the desired iydrocarbons fromthose which it is advantageous to remove.

We have further found that our process is particularly advantageous inits application to those solid and semi-solid hydrocarbons knowncommercially as parafiins, vaselines, petrolatums and similarsubstances, although we do not limit ourselves to such particularapplications.

While our process may be employed with solid hydrocarbons, such asparaflin, in lumps of considerable size, we prefer to use the solidhydrocarbon in a finely comminuted condition as more effective resultsare thus produced.

We vgive the following example of the following out of the process ofour invention:

Sulfur-dioxid gas is run into 12 gallons benzol until 8 pounds of theabsorbed. This solution is then a ded to 100 pounds finely comminutedyellow crude scale parafiin wax and the mixture thoroughly agitateduntil a test of the paraflin shows desired purification. This operationmay be performed at the ordinary room temperature, that is, about 20, C.without pressure and usually requires but a few moments for itscompletion. The solution is then separated, as by filtration, and theremaining solution removed from the parafiin by pressure, heat or othersuitable Any remaining coloring matter maybe substantially removed fromthe parafiin by passing it in a melted condition through a.

Thesulfur-dioxid in gaseous state follows the cycle of the benzol duringthe recovery by distillation and is redissolved in the puri'fiedrecovered benzol without considerable loss. I

The benzol in the above example may be substituted by acetone,ethyl-alcohol, wood alcohol, tolue'n'e,'xylene, car on-tetrachlorid,chlor-benzol, dichlor-benzol, or by any other alcohol or other solventhaving properties making it adaptable to our process.

While we have mentioned a temperature of 20 C. in our example, we do notlimit ourselves to this particular temperature,

which may be varied to suit the manufacturing conditions or particulargrade of crude paraffin employed and 'we prefer to 'use a temperatureabove 32 F.

In the example we produce the solution of sulfur-dioxid by passingsulfur-dioxid gas through the solvent, but any other means of producingsuch a solution may be emplo ed.

y the following of our process, as above described, the deleteriousunsaturated hydrocarbons and oils, the coloring matters and the waterare practically removed leavingthe parafiin practically ordorless,colorless and tasteless and with higher melting point than that of theoriginal crude paraflin.

It is evident from .the above that our process presents a new, novel anduseful method for the efiicient, economical and easy purification ofhydrocarbons.

We do not limit ourselves to the particular chemicals, quantities,temperatures or mode of procedure as described, all of which mayaces-10' are be varied without going beyond the scope of our inventionas described ,What we claim is 1. A process for the urificatlon ofnonliquid hydrocarbons which comprises treating the. impure hydrocarbonswith benzol and claimed.

containin sulfur oxid and separating the non-liquid hydrocarbons from\the liquid impurities.

2. A process for the purification of paraffin which comprises treatingimpure paraffin with benzol containin sulfur-dioxid and separating theparafiin rom the liquid impurities. I

3. A process for the purification of nonliquid hydrocarbons whichcomprises treating. the impure hydrocarbons with benzol containing.sulfur-dioxid .at atmospheric pressure and separating the non-liquidhydrocarbons from the liquid impurities.

4. A process for the purification of paraffin which comprises treatingimpure paraffin with benzol containing sulfur-dioxid at atmosphericpremure and separating the paraflin from the li uid im urities.

.5. A process for t e puri cation of nonliquid hydrocarbons whichcomprises treating the im ure hydrocarbons with a solution of sulur-dioxid in a solvent capable of dissolving the original objectionablecom, pounds and those formed by the sulfurdioxid at atmospheric pressureand at a temperature above 32 F. and separatin the non-liquidhydrocarbons from the liquid impurities.

6. A process for the purification of paraffin which comprises treatingimpure paraffin with a solution of sulfur-dioxid in a solvent capable ofdissolving the original objectionable compounds and those formed by thesulfur-dioxid at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature above 32 F.and separating the paraflin-from the liquid impurities.

7. A process for the purification of nonliquid hydrocarbons whlchcomprises treating the impure hydrocarbons with benzol containingsulfur-dioxid at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature above 32 F.and separatin the non-liquid hydrocarbons from the liquid impurities.

8. A process for the purification of paraffin which comprises treatingimpure paraffin with-benzol containing sulfur-dioxid at atmosphericpressure and at a temperature above 32 F. and separating the paraflinfrom the liquid impurities.

- Signed at New vYork city, in the county of New York and State o'f NewYork, this

